Reel for wire coils



Oct. 25, 1960 Filed Nov. 24, 1958 D. B. BoswoRTH Erm. 2,957,643

REEL 'FOR WIRE coILs 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 y u omvey Oct. 25, 1960 Filed Nov.24, 1958 REEL FOR WIRE COILS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 S le e0 ai? S /4 8 J Q7 /5a6. Q 9 a5E` I6 /7 e4 i a 7 al 36 /0 Q aa /l Je I8 c, as 5 30 o S w a5 Saa Jl .48 5f 33 W 47 .3:4

United States Patent itice 2,957,643 Patented Oct. 25, 1960 REEL FORWIRE CILS Delbert B. Bosworth, Cumberland Center, and Charles E.Jackson, South Portland, Maine, assignors, by mesne assignments, toChicago Bridge & Iron Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of IllinoisFiled Nov. 24, 1958, Ser. No. 775,764

7 Claims. (Cl. 242-128) The present invention relates to a reel for acoil of wire and particularly to such a reel for use with equipmenthaving a wire feed.

Many types of wire may be purchased in coils at a considerable savingover its cost when the same wire is sold in reel form. There is a need,among users of large quantities of such wires, for a reel that willenable coiled wire to be used wherever wire feeds or other specialrequirements presently dictate that spooled wire must be used.

The principal objective of the present invention is to provide reelsthat meet that demand. In accordance with the invention, that objectiveis attained by providing a reel consisting of an annular, upwardlyopening coil holder rotatably mounted in supporting structure andprovided with a coaxial pulley rotatable therewith and located above acoil in said holder. The supporting structure carries wire guide meansthrough which one end of wire is fed. The outfeed end of the wire guidemeans is disposed relative to the pulley to establish an approximatelytangential engagement of the wire therewith. The supporting structurealso is provided with exit means, preferably a wire straightener,frictionally engaging the wire as it comes from the pulley and spacedarcuately from the zone of engagement of the wire therewith as it cornesfrom the wire guide means. engagement with a pulley, a pull on the wireis operative to turn the pulley and the rotor but if the rotor overruns,such overrunning feeds wire through the guide means at an acceleratedrate and frees it from driving engagement with the pulley.

It is preferred that the wire guide means include a flexible memberdisposed to trail over the coil, as the holder turns, and having an eyethrough which one end of the wire is fed, a portion having a transverseslot to receive the wire from the eye, and a tubular, curved, outfeedportion.

When, as in a wire feed to a welding gun, the wire becomes an electricalconductor, the rotor is electrically insulated from the supportingstructure and the supporting structure is a closed housing.

In the accompanying drawings, there is shown, as an illustrativeembodiment of the invention and from which these and other of itsobjectives, novel features, and advantages will be readily apparent, areel for coiled wire that is to be fed to a welding gun. In thedrawings,

Fig. l is a top plan View of a wire reel in accordance with theinvention, and

Figs. 2 and 3 are sections taken approximately along the indicated lines2 2, and 3 3, respectively, of Fig. 1.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, the supportingstructure comprises a bottom 5 and a cylindrical side wall 6 providedwith liners 5a and 6a, respectively, of stock thatV is a non-conductorof electricity. The thus established housing is shown as being closed bya cover 7. Centrally of the bottom 5, there is a center post 8 havingits base 9 locked to the bottom 5 As the wire is in sleeve 17 of thegenerally indicated rotor 18. The sleeve 17 and the post 8 have bearingretainers 19 and 20, respectively, secured thereto by bolts 21 and 22.The bolts 22 also attach a bearing cap 23 to the cap 12. At the lowerend of the sleeve 17, there is a shoulder 24 against which the race of abearing unit 25 is held seated by a retainer 26 secured to the sleeve 17by bolts 27. Y

Plates 28 and 29, fast on the upper and lower ends of the sleeve 17,respectively, are interconnected by downwardly and outwardly inclinedribs 30 and radial supports 31 are Welded to the lower plate 29. Anannular, upwardly opening holder for a coil of wire W is generallyindicated at 32 and comprises a bottom wall 33 secured to the supports31, a cylindrical outer Wall 34, and an upwardly and inwardly inclinedinner Wall 35 secured to the ribs 30. The upper plate 28 has a fixedpulley 36 co-axial with the rotor 18 and shown as of a diameterapproximately equal to the outside diameter of the plate 28.

The sleeve 37 of a spider 38 is locked on the bolt 13 as by the nut 39.The spider 38 has arms 40, 41, 42, and 43 extending radially outwardlyover the holder 32. The arms 40 and 41 have guides 44 and 45,respectively. The guides 44 and 45 are in the form of transverse slotsof the same length but with the guide slot 44 of substantially greaterwidth than the guide slot 45.

The arm 42 is provided with a clamp 46 anchoring the infeed end of acurved, tubular guide 47 in a position spaced rearwardly and centrallyof, but in approximately the same plane as the guide slot 45. Theoutfeed end of the guide 47 is anchored in a clamp 48 on the spider arm43 in such a position that wire W passing therefrom has an approximatelytangential engagement with the pulley 36. The curvature and dimensionsof the guide 47 are such that minimum resistance is olfered to thepassage of the wire therethrough.

The arm 42 has a bracket 49 on which there are mounted rolls 50, 51, and52 each having an annular groove 53. These rolls are disposed andarranged that as the Wire W passes between the roll 50 and the roll 51and between the roll 50 and the roll 52 and through the exit port 54 inthe Wall 6, it is suitably straightened.

The guides 44 and 45 together with the tubular guide 47 constitute thewire guide means but such preferably includes a flexible member, such asa length of chain 55, carried by the spider arm 43 to trail over thewire coil as it is unwound. The appropriate end of the coiled wire isfed through the eye defined by its last link and is then fed through theguides 44 and 45 and through the tubular guide 47. The wire is thenpassed around the pulley 36 and through the wire straightener andthrough the exit port 54. v

It will be noted that the wire straightener and exit port 54 are solocated t'nat the wire W, when fed therethrough and through the wireguidemeans, engages lthe pulley 36 through` an arcv of". i For reasonsthat will presently be apparent, the arm 40 is provided with adependingV pin 56 so disposed relative to the pulley- 36 that the wire Wis loosely confined thereby in the groove of the pulley as may be seenfrom Fig. 3.

With the wire W fed through the guide means, part way around the pulley36 and through the wire straightl ener and the exit port 54, a pull onthe wire causes the rotor to turn. If the rotor 18 overruns, the wire isfed by such overrunning through the guide means at an eccelerated rateso that it moves but of driving engagement with the pulley 36 againstthe retaining pin 56. As a consequence, the rotor 18 does not turn inresponse to a pull on the wire W until the slack developed by itsoverrunning has been pulled from the reel and the wire again broughtinto driving engagement with the pulley 36. It will be appreciated thatthe flexible, trailing member 55 is important as it remains in controlof the course of the Wire coil passing to the guide 44 even though thatcourse may, at times, become buried by other courses thus ensuringtrouble free unwinding of the coil.

What we therefore claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A reel for so supporting a coil of wire that the coil may be unwoundby pulling, said reel comprising supporting structure, a rotor having anannular, upwardly opening coil receiving holder and being rotatablysupported by said structure, said rotor including a co-axial pulleyrotatable therewith and located above a coil in said holder, wire guidemeans carried by said structure through which one end of the wire isfed, and having its outfeed end `adjacent said pulley and disposedrelative thereto to establish an approximately tangential engagement ofthe wire therewith, and means frictionally guiding the wire after saidwire leaves said pulley and spaced arcuately from the zone of engagementof the wire as it comes from said guide means so that when wire ispulled through said frictionally guiding means, said pulley is rotated,overrunning of said rotor feeding wire through said wire guide means atan accelerated rate thus to disengage it from said pulley.

2. A reel for so supporting a coil of wire that the coil may be unwoundby pulling, said reel comprising supporting structure, a rotor having anannular, upwardly opening coil receiving holder and being rotatablysupported by said structure, said rotor including a co-axial pulleyrotatable therewith `and located above a coil in said holder, wire guidemeans carried by said structure and including a flexible member fortrailing over the coil and having an eye through which one end of thewire is fed, and an outfeed portion having its outfeed end adjacent saidpulley and disposed relative thereto to establish an approximatelytangential engagement of the wire therewith, and means frictionallyguiding the wire after said wire leaves said pulley and spaced arcuatelyfrom the zone of engagement of the wire as it comes from said outfeedposition so that when wire is pulled through said frictionally guidingmeans, said pulley is rotated, overrunning of said rotor feeding wirethrough said wire guide means at an accelerated rate thus to disengageit from said pulley.

3. A reel for so supporting a coil of wire that the coil may be unwoundby pulling, said reel comprising supporting structure, a rotor having anannular, upwardly opening coil receiving holder and being rotatablysupported by said structure, said rotor including a co-axial pulleyrotatable therewith and located above a coil in said holder, wire guidemeans carried by said structure through which one end of the wire isfed, and having its outfeed end adjacent said pulley and disposedrelative thereto to establish an approximately tangential engagement ofthe wire therewith, and means frictionally guiding the wire after saidwire leaves said pulley and spaced arcuately from the zone of engagementof the wire as it comes from said guide means so that when wire ispulled through said frictional guiding means, said pulley is rotated,overrunning of said rotor feeding wire through said wire guide means atan -accelerated rate thus to disengage it from said pulley, and a memberconfining said wire against escape from a position relative to saidpulley in which re-engagement therewith results when slack iseliminated.

4. A reel for so supporting a coil of wire that the coil may be unwoundby pulling, said reel comprising supporting structure, a rotor having anannular, upwardly opening coil receiving holder and being rotatablysupported by said structure, said rotor including a coaxial pulleyrotatable therewith and located above a coil in said holder, wire guidemeans carried bysaid structure and including a flexible member fortrailing over the coil and having an eye through which one end of thewire is fed, a portion having a transverse wire infeed disposed toreceive said end and a tubular outfeed portion having its outfeed endadjacent said pulley and disposed relative thereto to establish anapproximately tangential engagement of the wire therewith, and meansfrictionally guiding the wire after said wire leaves said pulley andspaced arcuately from the Zone of engagement of the wire as it comesfrom said guide means so that when wire is pulled through saidfrictional guiding means, said pulley is rotated, overrunning of saidrotor feeding wire through said wire guide means at an accelerated ratethus to disengage it from said pulley.

5. The reel of claim 4 in which the infeed consists of two arcuatelyspaced arms each having a guide in the form of a transverse slot, theslits being of approximately the same length and the leading slot beingwider than the trailing slot.

6. A reel for so supporting a coil of wire that the coil may be unwoundby pulling, said reel comprising supporting structure, a rotor having anannular, upwardly opening coil receiving holder and being rotatablysupported by said structure, said rotor including a co-axial pulleyrotatable therewith and located above a coil in said holder, wire guidemeans carried by said structure and including a tiexible member fortrailing over the coil and having an edge through which one end of thewire is fed `and having its outfeed end adjacent said pulley anddisposed relative thereto to establish an approximately tangentialengagement of the wire therewith, means frictionally guiding said wireafter said wire leaves said pulley and spaced arcuately from the zone ofengagement of the wire as it comes from said guide'means so that whenwire is pulled through said outfeed, said pulley is rotated, overrunningof said rotor feeding wire through said wire guide means at anaccelerated rate thus to disengage it from said pulley, and meansconfining the wire when disengaged from the pulley in position tore-engage therewith when the slack is used up.

7. A reel for so supporting a coil of Wire that the coil may be unwoundby pulling, said reel comprising a housing, a rotor having an annular,upwardly opening coil receiving holder and being rotatably supported bysaid housing and electrically insulated therefrom, said rotor includinga co-axial pulley rotatable therewith and located above a coil in saidholder, wire guide means carried by said housing through which one endof the wire is fed and having its outfeed end adjacent said pulley anddisposed relative thereto to establish an approximately tangentialengagement of the wire therewith, and a wire straightener carried bysaid structure disposed to receive wire from said pulley and spacedarcuately from the zone of engagement of the wire as it comes from saidguide means so that when wire is pulled through said straightener, saidpulley is rotated, overrunning of said rotor feeding wire through saidwire guide means at an accelerated rate thus to disengage it from saidpulley.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,219,811 Friedman Oct. 29, 1940 2,246,840 Crane et al. June 24, 19412,680,710 Kenmore et al lune 8, 1954

